How well I remember my first encounter with the Chamber Orchestra
of Europe just months after it had been founded: it was not only
a breath of fresh air, it was sheer heaven. Those young European
musicians, who for age reasons had to leave the European Youth Orchestra,
wanted to stick together and carry on making music for music’s
sake. Such intuitive drive, style and musical understanding, such
a harmony, sparkle and common interest, and such honest vitality
was something I had never come across before. I had realised more
than ever that sooner or later every chamber group, every orchestra,
becomes institutionalised, while the original spirit slowly disappears
into routine. The exception – like the European Chamber Orchestra
of today – is the rule. On the other hand, this country produces
so many extremely talented young musicians of great individuality
that there will always be exciting and risk taking new ensembles
capable of injecting the spirit of music into our soul.

Without any doubt, Conchord belongs to this rare
breed of musicians. This flexible group, founded in 2002 by the
American oboist Emily Pailthorpe and her English husband, who plays
the flute and also surprises with his brilliant arrangements, not
only understands the art of programming, but also the art of how
to deliver one and how to make an audience listen.

They started their concert with an exuberant interpretation of Poulenc’s
well know Sextet (1939) for piano, flute, oboe, horn, bassoon
and clarinet, a work full of wit, sarcasms, mockery, character and
zeitgeist. Each instrument speaks with incredible fantasy and sometimes
there are underlying hints at Weill’s “Three Penny Opera.”
Only in the last couple of minutes does Poulenc get deadly serious
– a foreboding of the times to come?

Deux Nocturnes op.32 (1920) for piano, horn (mainly muted)
and flute by Charles Koechlin, two short, delicate and to me totally
unknown, impressionistic miniatures followed. The first, Venise,
evoked Venetian waters, while the second, Dans la forêt,
created - in an even more mysterious way - the hushed atmosphere
of a forest. One of the greatest chamber works by an English composer,
the rarely heard Phantasie Trio in C Minor (1907) for piano
trio by Frank Bridge brought the first half of Conchord´s
concert to a ravishing end. This early work, written for the second
`Cobett Musical Competition´ in June 1907 (also winning the
first prize,) is deeply routed in the late German romantic tradition.
It is in one movement, but clearly divided into a stormy exposition,
which returns at the end, a deeply moving andante and an effective
scherzo. Why Frank Bridge is so underrated in his native country
is something I have never understood. The young German-Japanese
violinist Maya Koch, demonstrating beautiful intonation, the equally
involved cello player Bridget MacRae, and Julian Milford, not only
a full blooded pianist, but also one of the best accompanists I
have ever experienced, made the work an unforgettable event.

After the interval, Conchord presented a rare UK premiere: the Trio
in Eb for Violin, Viola and Piano (1885) by the Austrian-German
composer of French ancestry Ludwig Thuille (1861-1907). This trio,
for the unusual combination of violin and Viola (instead of Cello),
came to light as late as 1998, when it was first published. Nowadays,
Thuille is hardly performed - even in Germany - despite a considerable
output of chamber music, as well as three operas. At only 17, he
concluded his musical studies with Joseph Rheinberger at the Royal
School of Music in Munich. Five years later, he began teaching at
the same institution, where Ernest Bloch was amongst his pupils.
Originally strongly influenced by the German romantic school of
Mendelssohn, Schumann and Brahms – his trio has some of the
innocent lightness of the early Mendelssohn – he became a
close friend of Richard Strauss and fell very much under his spell.
His later works are dominated by the influence of Wagner and the
neo romantic Munich School. When he died in 1907, at the age of
46, musical taste began to change, and with the end of world war
one, neo romanticism was no longer popular. As an epigone of the
past and his Munich surroundings he became easily forgotten. He
also wrote an extensive theory of harmony, published in 1907, which
has been reprinted many times. The trio is charming and as Douglas
Paterson (viola) pointed out, it is the only work for this instrumental
combination he knows of. He put the question to the audience, why
this well crafted and amiable composition has only recently been
discovered and hardly been performed. The answer is easy: from an
artistic point of view it is not that great a work; only the piano
part is developed, while the two strings play mainly in unison.

Conchord finished the evening in style: the Hungarian Dances
No.6 and No.1 by Johannes Brahms in a superlative arrangement
for all nine Conchord players by Daniel Pailthorpe. Sadly, the art
of arranging, very much in demand in the 18th and 19th centuries,
has been lost. Then, it was common practice to arrange famous compositions
for any kind of ensemble, due partly to virtually non-existent copyright.
Even the great composers of those centuries wrote arrangements of
their own works either to please the public or to prevent others
from doing so. Daniel Pailthorpe is a worthy successor of this tradition,
as he has proven many times before. Conchord played those two arrangements
with temperament and flair – and the close to capacity audience
went wild. As an encore we got another of those famous Hungarian
Dances.

At this concert, Conchord launched its two newest CDs, one dedicated
to Poulenc including the Sextet (ASV DCA 1170), the other to Ludwig
Thuille, which next to the Trio also includes his much more powerful
Sextet in B flat major for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn
and piano (quartz QTZ 2014). A memorable evening, of real musicianship.